Hands-On Science!

I am happy to be on a team that is strong in integrating science. It has been a priority to cover science standards while integrating reading, writing, and math.

In fact, last year we made science our focus right from week one of school! Here’s a peek at what we did!

We each brought a big watermelon to school with us on the first day. “Hey honey, don’t forget your watermelon!”

As students all came in to class the first day they see a watermelon. On day two (or halfway through day one) the watermelon is missing. Gone. Right off the counter. I make a scene. I question students. I get really sad because now we can’t eat the watermelon that I had planned as a snack on Friday. Cue the sudden interest and buy-in from students. We decide to go on a watermelon hunt around the school. (This is our school tour time)

My teammate made the cutest watermelon clue cards and set them around the building for all of first grade to share as we toured the school becoming familiar with places and procedures. Our principal had our watermelon and a treat for us in her office. Of course I have no pictures of any of this fun due to the fact that I was trying to herd my brand new first graders around the school in “number order”. This concept being new and very grown up was also very difficult for some which caused others to lose their little minds when the order wasn’t perfect. Yup. It’s coming folks. Good times…

Once our watermelon was safely returned to our classroom, we introduced the scientific process. Then we jump right in and try it out! I am not going to apologize for my on the spot handwriting. I am a lefty and I do my best…which is about a fifth grade level of handwriting. Ok third grade tops.

I carried a watermelon Dirty Dancing

Each day the first week we pose a new question about the watermelon and follow the scientific method to discover the answer.

Then on Friday we finally eat it. (as we integrate science and math of course)

Each student writes their prediction on pink and the actual number of seeds on green.

To help us remember the scientific method I made these posters for our classroom. This way I can remind myself to use the right terms consistently.

Once we finish up our watermelon science, we move right into apple science in September!

We use our apple books during writing, math, and science. The students are beaming with pride. It is a great way to get them started in interactive notebooking too!

From apples we move on to pumpkins in October. Each one of these folding science books takes us about two to two and a half weeks to complete. Once we get through the pumpkin book, they have the formatting down and begin to really become independent with it.

This is the order that we taught these books in last year.

All of these units plus my other science units are on sale today for the last day of Christmas in July!
Click any of the pictures in this post to see that item or click the picture below to see all of my science units.

Oh my, I love the watermelon idea! Sadly, our team is not very good at integrating science yet. It's a passion project for me this year and I love the idea! I just need to figure out something besides watermelon because those are incredibly expensive in Korea!

Our kindergarten teacher had us weigh 3 items at the grocery store. Then draw a pic and write which one weighed the most / less, my son picked watermelon 🙂 I love how you incorporated the seeds!!!! This is a great blog, thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much for the wonderful ideas! I love this new "flip book- All About Me". I love looking at your classroom and the wonderful pictures. How did you make the name tags? Is this for sell on TPT? Thanks so much for sharing!Maryannbrennemm@carlisleschools.org

Hi Reagan! I'm enjoying reading your blog! I teach out of my home now with kids ranging from ages 5-9. I have three 6 year olds so I pretty much followed your lessons from the first few weeks of school. We enjoyed Watermelon Science so much, I added your link to my blog post http://littlelogcottageschool.com/2015/08/21/first-grade-fridays-weeks-1-2/ Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful ideas!

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Welcome!

I'm Reagan, an 18 year primary grade teacher with a passion for creating engaging and exciting education materials. This is a place where I candidly share my classroom experiences, lesson ideas, and a dash of my day to day life and loves.